12 Answers

I would think the breeders would say it continues the best line of any particular breed going. Bottom line is they earn lots and lots of £ $ from what they do.
There will always be demand for the best dogs.

Most breeders don’t make lots of money, they do it for the love of the breed and specific traits that each breed has. There is a big difference between, say a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and a Labrador. Some prefer one, some the other. It’s an individual taste thing. Supporting a responsible breeder to get a pet that is (probably) more appropriate in temperament, size and duties within the family is not a bad thing.

@partyparty Any good breeder will tell you that they don’t make lots of money from breeding and selling pups. After the stud fees, caring for a pregnant bitch and then caring for puppies when they are born, a breeder is often lucky if they break even!

It’s because of selective breeding that we have a wide variety of breeds to choose from. Some people don’t think that is a good enough reason but I know that I have my favourite breeds, some of which, wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for breeders keeping the lines going. Also, people want dogs for different reasons, some breeds do better in certain situations/lifestyles than other and some breeds are better at certain jobs than others (a Retreiver is a good gundog, a Collie is a good herder and a Jack Russell is good at keeping pesky rodents at bay). All the breeders I know say that they do so to “better the breed” and as @theninth said, well-planned breeding is used to try and eliminate health problems as well as producing dogs that are very capable of doing the job that they may have been bred for.

I don’t have a problem with responsible breeders. I have a problem with idiots that decide to mate their bitch because they think it is an easy way to make money and they don’t bother to get all the relevant health checks in order to produce healthy pups.

The only good reason I can think of is that you have discovered some endangered species of canine. I thought I wanted to breed my Shih Tzu, but my vet reminded me of how many unwanted dogs there are in the world already, and unless Shuih Tzus became endangered, there is really no reason to keep breeding.

The time to do careful breeding is before a breed becomes very rare. You want to preserve as much genetic variation within the breed as possible, to prevent genetic bottlenecks that endanger many breeds.

This by no means means that dogs that do not meet a very high standard should be bred! Breeding should still be confined to the best of the best.

I have a sled dog. He loves to pull. One of the oldest of breeds, Malamutes were originally bred for 3 things..pulling heavy loads, hunting polar bear, and (lol) babysitting. They are a friendly affable dog, but not meant for everyone – being huge and energetic they need room and lots of exercise. I wanted a working dog that could stand our cold climate – and you know, somehow I think a pit bull wouldn’t fit my lifestyle.